


Sinners of the System: Case 1 - a Ginoza character study

by DrunkenDrunk



Category: Psycho-Pass
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, References to Depression
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-12-01 21:03:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20898605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrunkenDrunk/pseuds/DrunkenDrunk
Summary: The system holds justice at gunpoint, but justice perseveres – not due to society as a whole, but to each individual's relentless will.Ginoza's point of view at the end of his battle in Sinners of the System: Case 1 - Crime and Punishment, set in winter 2117.





	Sinners of the System: Case 1 - a Ginoza character study

**Author's Note:**

> DO NOT PLAGIARIZE, RE-POST, ALTER, OR SUBMIT ANY PART OF THIS WORK TO OTHER SITES, BLOGS, CONTESTS, OR PROFESSIONAL ESTABLISHMENTS.
> 
> I do not own PSYCHO-PASS, nor the characters from it. I do not make money from the writing of this work.

"Don't kid yourself," Rodion had sneered. "Why are you, of all people, fighting for justice? Sooner or later, you'll realize that you can't depend on anyone in this wretched society – because you're a latent criminal!"

  
"I only want to see this case solved," Ginoza had said. "That's all."

  
But, as Rodion had claimed, Ginoza wasn't being honest. That was definitely not all that he wanted.

  
He had tried not to let the man's words affect him as he was fighting for his life, but there was truth to them.

  
The man who had just fallen to his death into the hole below was no different from Ginoza. They were disposable.

  
The only difference Ginoza could come up with at the moment was that he didn't hurt and kill indiscriminately to reach his personal goals. His violence was sanctioned by laws that he felt conflicted about, laws governed by a System that had long ago labeled him worthless to society.

  
Ginoza thought that he, as a hound taking orders, wasn’t much different from Rodion taking orders from Tsujigai. The latent criminals of society would always be used by others as they pleased.

  
Rodion's words had gotten to Ginoza while he was getting beaten up. Because he had reached his limit, he was so tired of it all.

  
It wasn’t fair. Ginoza had thought he had fully accepted his lot in life, but apparently he hadn’t. His Crime Coefficient had doubled to the 60s in September 2112 because his mother had wasted away from eustress disease. Then it had risen to nearly 90 during the Makishima case. And finally, after Ginoza had lost his father, he had become a latent criminal.

  
Not once had Ginoza considered getting revenge or committing a crime. Something about the System was seriously flawed, and life sometimes seemed unbelievably unfair.

  
Just as he didn’t understand why Rodion had to take part in the crimes at Sanctuary, he sometimes also didn’t understand why he gave his all to serve a society that scorned him. 

  
He wasn't strong enough to escape and live like that person who spent each day in freedom, traveling the world and doing only the things that he believed in.

  
Ginoza’s cracked ribs and bruises throbbed and his bleeding head pounded. He wanted to collapse. Maybe he would slump onto the solid edge; maybe he would slip into the hollow void. He should simply let the inevitable happen.

  
After all, he could be discarded by the System anytime, and another latent criminal would replace him. His fate was not for him to decide.

  
When Ginoza had just become an Enforcer, Tsunemori had mentioned that almost everyone in Division 1 was either dead or missing. Ginoza had been resigned to his fate, and he had told her as much.

"That's how an Enforcer usually meets his end. Whether or not I die isn’t something I get to choose."

  
He swayed on the edge of the broken precipice, light-headed, his injuries aching and bleeding. Exhaustion was dragging him downwards. He was about to lose consciousness and he didn't care to try to stop it.

  
His broken, sorry state was a reminder that he would never be strong enough, physically or mentally. His eyelids felt heavy, his vision grew blurry, and he stumbled and lost his balance, tilting forward with the freezing, howling wind.

* * *

  
  
A grip on Ginoza's remaining forearm made him jerk to a stop with his upper body hanging halfway over the hole. In a daze of vertigo, he turned his head to squint through the snowstorm at whoever had pulled him back to reality, annoyed at them for denying him rest.

  
Was it... That person? That person might be speaking, but Ginoza couldn't hear him above the snowy wind whipping all around.

  
That person's ever-stubborn face seemed to say, "Gino, you can't die yet. You have to catch up to me."

  
The hallucination faded and Ginoza saw Kunizuka in that person's place.

  
"Let's hurry," she said. "Mika-chan is waiting."

  
Kunizuka pulled hard on his arm and he tumbled away from the hole, bumping into her. 

  
"Okay," he replied automatically. He vaguely processed Kunizuka removing her oversized puffer jacket and helping him to don it instead of his own ripped and sodden one. 

  
Through his dizziness, pain, and cold, Ginoza forced himself to come to his senses.

  
As Kunizuka pushed him forward into a jog, she wrapped her arm around his back, her hand gripping the jacket on his right side.

  
She jogged on Ginoza’s left side, which burned from the bleeding, reopened lacerations he had bandaged earlier. He was reminded of the spear that had caused the wounds, the spear that he had blocked to protect a little boy.

  
Ginoza regained some of his strength and was able to run by himself.

  
"Thank you," he said to Kunizuka.

* * *

  
  
"Are you okay?" Hinakawa asked in the helicopter, touching Ginoza's shoulder with concern.

  
"Yeah," he replied, honestly.

  
He would be okay.

  
Because, even though life could be unfair, he was different from a criminal.

  
He might be a pawn for a System that he didn't believe in, but his superiors were doing their best to change the corruption from the inside. On the outside, he was doing what he could by executing their unwavering will.

  
He might be a latent criminal, but he had his own sense of justice that drove him to protect the innocent. Regardless of whether he or those people mattered to the System that had abandoned them, he did what he thought was right.

  
He had to support Tsunemori until she could be with that person again, and he had to watch over his teammates. He had to continue doing his job in a way that was consistent with his own values.

  
In his own limited ways, he had been making his own choices – choices that he could live with.

  
He might not be so far behind that person, after all.

  
He regretted who he had been in the past, but the person he was now lived each day without regrets.

  
His late father's words, spoken when Ginoza had just started as an Inspector, came to mind.

  
"There's no point in regretting something after you've lost your chance. The most important thing you can do is to try, even if you think you can't do something."

  
If Ginoza continued to live with integrity and purpose, he could make his father proud. 

**Author's Note:**

> “His character development has two factors: his relationships with Kogami and his father, and his change from believing in the Sibyl System to believing in himself.” -Nojima Kenji, Ginoza's voice actor


End file.
